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02/17/2020 11:00 PMA recently finalized audit of the town’s finances shows that East Haven has run a $1.2 million deficit for Fiscal Year 2018-’19. Mayor Joe Carfora said that the current year’s budget is also likely to be in a deficit as well and has vowed the town will correct the issue.
Both budgets were prepared by former mayor Joseph Maturo’s administration. The $1.2 million budget deficit for 2018-’19 represents 1.3 percent of the current Town Council-approved $92,032,599 budget.
“This was sprung on us. We thought the town was in better shape,” Carfora said.
Each year the town undergoes an audit of the previous year’s finances to ensure an accurate assessment of the town’s budget. About a month ago, Carfora said he began hearing rumors that there was a deficit but waited until the final report was out to confirm it.
The audit was conducted by PKF O’Connor Davies, LLP.
Carfora said the deficit “hit the fund balance hard...It went down significantly.”
The fund balance in 2019 was $5.8 million.
Carfora says the town is taking steps to address the deficit in a way that won’t negatively affect taxpayers.
“I will do whatever I can and I’m pretty confident I can do it without raising taxes,” Carfora told the Courier.
Carfora said he’s hopeful some of the various projects in town will lead to a revenue increase, and he instituted a spending freeze last month.
“I’m trying to do the right thing we’re all doing what we can. We will close the gap,” Carfora said.
As part of the freeze prior approval by the mayor is required for all non-emergency purchase orders and overtime hours.
The announcement of the audit results comes right as the town is about to begin its budget process for the next fiscal year. In early March, the mayor is expected to submit his budget recommendations to the Board of Finance. It will be returned to the mayor with any recommendations or suggested revisions based on budget workshops and then head to the Town Council by the end of March.
A final budget is typically adopted by the end of April.
This deficit scenario may strike town finance observers as familiar. When April Capone unseated Maturo in 2007, her administration said at that time that Maturo’s representation of a multi-million-dollar surplus was inaccurate and that the Maturo administration’s years of over-estimating tax collection and appropriating fund balances had left the town in deficit.